La Presse headlines a wave of violence in Montreal, including an interview with a McGill professor described as a specialist in transcultural psychiatry. Cécile Rousseau believes that a pervasive nihilism is tilting people toward violence and evil.
On the other side of the balance, Ted Rutland tweets that it’s interesting to see which statistics police put forward. “The three first months of 2022 saw the second lowest murder rate of the last five years, but the police don’t publicize that.”
I would counter Rousseau with the observation that people have often been faced with grim facts of life. Hot and cold wars, fears of nuclear catastrophe, environmental degradation, pandemics – who gets to live a life not afflicted by any one of these? Our time is nothing special.
Blork 15:06 on 2022-04-18 Permalink
I would also counter Rutland that “Murder” is not the only metric of violent crime.
Kevin 15:13 on 2022-04-18 Permalink
Seems like the increase started in 2019. I wonder if there was any big change in Quebec’s laws around that time…
But that’s just where my mind goes.
steph 21:00 on 2022-04-18 Permalink
@Blork, doesn’t it follow that for every murder you have a proportional amount of street attacks or other violent crimes? Are Montrealers just bad at ‘finishing the job’?
Mark 09:04 on 2022-04-19 Permalink
Kate, on your Rousseau point, absolutely! When have humans not faced societal, economic, or health threats? Climate change is a new one because of its scale, but how climate change will play out locally is very similar to the challenges that we’ve faced as a species throughout the years: drought, crop failure, floods, etc.
The big difference these days is that information of all kinds (true, false, sensationalist, etc.) is spreading at a hyper-accelerated speed, even compared to 5-10 years ago. Imagine adding the multiplier effect of social media to any historical event….what would Facebook have looked like had it existed at the peak of the Black Plague?
Blork 11:59 on 2022-04-19 Permalink
@Steph, I don’t think those things are necessarily linked. There are all sorts of violent crimes that have nothing to do with murders. Muggings, robberies, random street fights, domestic violence, sexual assaults, non-lethal gunshot wounds (not all shootings are intended to be murders), etc.
I have no idea if those things are up or down. I’m just saying that using “murder” as the only metric when discussing the crime rate (even more precisely: the violent crime rate) is a poor way of evaluating the situation.
MarcG 12:06 on 2022-04-19 Permalink
Rutland followed that tweet up with a chart showing assults over the last 15 years https://twitter.com/TedRutland/status/1516400551600218113/photo/1
Blork 12:20 on 2022-04-19 Permalink
WRT the Rousseau point, she is not the only one saying this. I don’t have citations handy, but I have seen a number of articles in the NY Times, The Atlantic, etc. over the past year about the very high levels of ennui and existential anxiety that is currently being felt by people, particularly among young people. It’s less about whether or not these times are any worse than previous times; it’s about the PERCEPTION of these times, and that is driven largely by media, and social media in particular.
It’s easy enough for us older people to reflect on the Cold War and whatnot, but even at its worst we still could go days, weeks, or even months where we could avoid it by simply reading/watching/listening to things other than the news. But now, with the Internet and social media, the world’s great problem are everywhere, and are a constant barrage of visual and auditory stimulation. You can’t avoid it. Instagram, TikTok, FB, any news outlet… it’s just wall-to-wall:
~ War in Ukraine.
~ Fear of war in Ukraine going nuclear.
~ Fear of war in Ukraine spreading to a wider European theatre, possibly for years.
~ COVID. Never-ending COVID. Masks and isolation for the rest of your life COVID.
~ COVID. Shanghai in total lockdown and still boiling over with cases.
~ Loss of Social coehesion – lingering memories of four years of Trump combined with stories of lame-duck Biden, meaning a serious threat of an imminent return of Trump (or Trumpness, even if it’s not Trump).
~ Loss of Social coehesion – Anti-vaxxers, Truckers and “freedom” rallies, conspiracy theorists, mass shootings.
~ Climate change.
~ Common denominator for all of these things: there will be no end to it.
This is what bombards people — especially young people — all day every day. Even if you just want to watch TikTok videos and post cat pics on Instagram you’ll still get flooded with Ukraine and Covid stories (and more). Social life is conducted largely online, and more than ever with the isolation of Covid, so this is magnified even more.
There’s just no comparison with what it was like in 1975 or 1982 when the Scary Shit only came up on your TV at 10:00 PM or maybe in a class discussion. Doesn’t mean it wasn’t on your mind a lot, but at least we weren’t bombarded by external stimulus about the Scary Shit all day every day.
Blork 12:25 on 2022-04-19 Permalink
…and finally: we older folks have learned through experience that life goes on despite the doom and gloom scenarios and predictions. Younger people don’t have that luxury of experience.
Kate 15:59 on 2022-04-19 Permalink
It’s one of the reasons I’m glad I read Doris Lessing at a relatively young age. One of her characters talks about the zeitgeist, and how when you’re in it, it’s hard to imagine any other public mood, but eventually it does change. But you have to experience that – to be able to look back and feel a change – before you really get it.
Ian 08:31 on 2022-04-20 Permalink
The only Doris Lessing I read as a teenager was “Memoirs of a Survivor” which really didn’t help 😀